One more D-16 Buck down..

Deno · Nov-03-2009, 12:17 PM

Omartish just called me and is coming down the mountain with one… Report and pictures to follow….

omartish · Nov-03-2009, 05:08 PM

Another D-16 buck down. Man I love my S.D. hunt. This season had been a good one and it got better today. The first day I hunted this year, I glassed a forkie and was not able to get a shot off because I was not ready.

This last weekend hunting with Deno and his family I glassed up the biggest SD buck I have ever seen. He was with two does at about 675 yrds out. I was with my 5 year old son. It hurt so much to know this is the best SD buck I have ever seen and I get to watch him eat away from me and there was nothing I could do. It is all good.

I went hunting this morning and left my 5 yr old son home pissed off because he had to go to school while I went hunting. I went to Click the image to open in full size. Notella Mt. (Im sure some of you heard of it) and began glassing the morning hours.

First Canyon. . . .Nada

Second Canyon . . . Nada

Screw it, it is starting to get warm and I haven’t seen anything all morning. I hiked out of the Second Canyon and crested the ridge to the west side and I was about to call it a day. The west side just seemed really deerish today so I gave it one more crack. 5 minutes into glassing a north facing slope and bingo, deer. One, two, three, four . . . come on papi where are you, bam a buck. Let me tell you, he looked to be at least thirty inches wide and at least a 5X5.

Glass them for a second longer to get the deer jitters out and now it is time to go for the range finder. 255 yards. I get the deer into the cross hairs, crank up the magnification and it is show time. BOOOOOM! ! ! the recoiled takes its course and the dust settles from the roar of the 300 Win Mag.

Look throw the binos and the deer is still up! Did I miss? Settle in for another shot, BOOOOM! Now the deer hits the deck and beds down immediately. He is not dead, but he is not moving anywhere. I give Deno a ring and let him know what is happening. Right now, I’m deciding whether to take another shot, possibly miss and jump the deer into another Canyon or let him sit there and let time take its course.

I choose to sit and wait. I glassed him to ensure he wasn’t getting up. He is laying and not dying, this could go on forever. I’m now going to try and close the distance for a closer shot to finish this. I get up, grab my gear and walk about ten yards. I glass the deer and he got up and walked down a game trail about 20 yards.

It is do or die, I place the cross hairs on him again and let it rip. Right through both shoulders, 165 Hornady GMX (lead free) anchors him forever. The surrounding brush was really tall and it took awhile to find him.

Talk about ground shrinkage, I could had swore I just shot a 180 class deer (just joking). He did shrink on me though. He was hit three times, gut shot, low in the brisket and through the front shoulders. All three rounds clear through him, those cooper bullets do have the penetration.

I did my duty with helping El Toro out with weeding the smaller bucks. I’ll shoot forkie any day in SD, maybe that is why I haven’t shot anything bigger in SD yet. Oh well.

Put that sucker on the frame and packed him out. Ran into a Deputy Sheriff (way cool) on the way out and he signed my tag for me. He mentioned he hunts, but hasn’t shot anything locally for years.